Search results for "COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE"

Do aetiology, age and cogntive reserve affect executive performance?

2017

Background: The behavioral effect of frontal lesions may be influenced by confounding factors such as aetiology, age and cogntive reserve. Yet no studies have investigated their effects on patients with focal lesions. Objective: Is the grouping of patients with frontal lesions caused by stroke or tumours methodologically appropriate; does age affect cognitive performance, can cognitive reserve protect against cognitive impairment? Patients and Methods/Material and Methods: Cognitive performance was compared across a large sample of frontal patients with stroke, high or low grade tumour, or meningioma. The effect of age, education and NART IQ on the cognitive performance of patients with foc…

2020

Abstract Efficient neuronal communication between brain regions through oscillatory synchronization at certain frequencies is necessary for cognition. Such synchronized networks are transient and dynamic, established on the timescale of milliseconds in order to support ongoing cognitive operations. However, few studies characterizing dynamic electrophysiological brain networks have simultaneously accounted for temporal non-stationarity, spectral structure, and spatial properties. Here, we propose an analysis framework for characterizing the large-scale phase-coupling network dynamics during task performance using magnetoencephalography (MEG). We exploit the high spatiotemporal resolution of…

Positive emotion induction improves cardiovascular coping with a cognitive task

2021

Feeling positive emotions seems to favour an adaptive cardiovascular response (greater heart rate variability, HRV), associated with improved cognitive performance. This study aims to test whether the induction of a positive emotional state produce such cardiovascular response and therefore, enhance coping and performance in Tower of Hanoi (ToH). Forty-two Participants were randomly distributed into two groups (Experimental and Control). Experimental group was subjected to the evocation of a memory of success, while control group was subjected to an attentional task before performing ToH. Heart Rate Variability (HRV), activity of the zygomatic major muscle (ZEMG) and emotions were measured.…

Media-induced recovery: The effects of positive versus negative media stimuli on recovery experience, cognitive performance, and energetic arousal.

2017

Recent research has demonstrated that the use of hedonically positive interactive media content contributes to the satisfaction of recovery needs and is associated with recovery outcomes such as higher levels of cognitive performance and increased energetic arousal. The recovery effects of noninteractive media stimuli as well as of media content with negative affective valence, however, are less clear. The present investigation addressed this limitation of prior research on

Effects of pulsed electromagnetic fields on cognitive processes - a pilot study on pulsed field interference with cognitive regeneration.

2004

Background – Due to the ubiquitous use of cellular phones much has been speculated on secondary effects of electromagnetic irradiation emitted by those. Additionally, several studies have reported vegetative alterations as well as effects on the neuronal and molecular levels in humans. Here, using a psycho–physiological test paradigm, we examined effects of exposure to pulsed electromagnetic fields on cognitive performance. Materials and methods – In 11 volunteers, we tested cognitive processing under field exposure (GSM standard) and under field-free conditions. To examine the hypothesized effect of pulsed fields, we applied an auditory discrimination task and determined the participant's …

Besteht eine Beeinträchtigung der ZNS-Aktivität durch gepulste elektromagnetische Felder? - Do Pulsed Electromagnetic Fields Impair CNS Activity?

2001

In the present pilot study we examined the effects of electromagnetic fields on the biological organism. The study was prompted by discussions on the possible effects on the nervous system and cognitive processes of fields produced by mobile phones. The experiments were performed in an electrophysiological laboratory. Eleven volunteers were exposed to pulsed electromagnetic fields (GSM standard). The psychophysiological method of assessing the order threshold (Ordnungsschwelle = OS) was used to examine cognitive performance. Under the test conditions, nine of the subjects showed a loss of mental regeneration, as reflected by an increase in the OS, in comparison with the field-free situation…

Cognitive performance and emotion are indifferent to ambient color

2017

Folklore has it that ambient color has the power to relax or arouse the observer and enhance performance when executing cognitive tasks. We picked a number of commercially available colors that allegedly have the power to alter cognitive performance and the emotional state, and exposed subjects to them while solving a battery of cognitive tasks. The colors were “Cool Down Pink”, which is said to produce relaxing effects and reduce effort, “Energy Red”, allegedly enhancing performance via increased arousal, “Relaxing Blue”, which is said to enhance attention and concentration, as well as white as a control. In a between-subjects design, a total of 170 high school students carried out five ta…

Age-Related Changes in Predictive Capacity Versus Internal Model Adaptability: Electrophysiological Evidence that Individual Differences Outweigh Eff…

2015

Hierarchical predictive coding has been identified as a possible unifying principle of brain function, and recent work in cognitive neuroscience has examined how it may be affected by age related changes. Using language comprehension as a test case, the present study aimed to dissociate age-related changes in prediction generation versus internal model adaptation following a prediction error. Event related brain potentials (ERPs) were measured in a group of older adults (60-81 years; n = 40) as they read sentences of the form "The opposite of black is white/yellow/nice." Replicating previous work in young adults, results showed a target related P300 for the expected antonym ("white"; an eff…

Genotype patterns at CLU, CR1, PICALM and APOE, cognition and Mediterranean diet: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA trial.

2014

The traditional Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) has shown beneficial effects on cognitive decline. Nevertheless, diet–gene interactions have been poorly evaluated. We aimed to investigate diet–gene interaction in the PREDIMED-NAVARRA randomized trial. A total of 522 participants (67 ± 6 years at baseline) enrolled in the PREDIMED-NAVARRA trial were randomly allocated to one of three diets: two MedDiets (supplemented with either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts) or a low-fat diet. They were evaluated with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Clock Drawing Test (CDT) after 6.5 years of intervention. Subjects were genotyped for CR1-rs3818361, CLU-rs11136000, PICALM-rs3851179 and Apolipo…

Factors underlying tiredness in older adults.

2007

Background and aims: The purpose of the present study was to examine for factors related to tiredness, cross-sectionally at the age of 75 years, and factors related to subsequent onset of tiredness, from age 75 to 80 in a non-disabled community-living population. Methods: The study is part of the prospective Nordic Research on Aging Study (NORA) on the 1914 cohort in Jyvaskyla, Finland and Glostrup, Denmark. In total, 546 non-disabled older men and women participated in the cross-sectional study at age 75, and 299 persons without tiredness and disability at baseline took part in the follow-up study, from age 75 to 80. Tiredness was measured by a validated scale based on the following items:…